Welcome to Medical News Today

Healthline Media, Inc. would like to process and share personal data (e.g., mobile ad id) and data about your use of our site (e.g., content interests) with our third party partners (see a current list) using cookies and similar automatic collection tools in order to a) personalize content and/or offers on our site or other sites, b) communicate with you upon request, and/or c) for additional reasons upon notice and, when applicable, with your consent.

Healthline Media, Inc. is based in and operates this site from the United States. Any data you provide will be primarily stored and processed in the United States, pursuant to the laws of the United States, which may provide lesser privacy protections than European Economic Area countries.

By clicking “accept” below, you acknowledge and grant your consent for these activities unless and until you withdraw your consent using our rights request form. Learn more in our Privacy Policy.

Please accept our privacy terms

We use cookies and similar technologies to improve your browsing experience, personalize content and offers, show targeted ads, analyze traffic, and better understand you. We may share your information with third-party partners for marketing purposes. To learn more and make choices about data use, visit our Advertising Policy and Privacy Policy. By clicking “Accept and Continue” below, (1) you consent to these activities unless and until you withdraw your consent using our rights request form, and (2) you consent to allow your data to be transferred, processed, and stored in the United States.

Get the MNT newsletter

Email an article

You have chosen to share the following article:

How elderberries can help you fight the flu

To proceed, simply complete the form below, and a link to the article will be sent by email on your behalf.Note: Please don't include any URLs in your comments, as they will be removed upon submission.

We do not store details you enter into this form. Please see our privacy policy for more information.

Dr. Andrew T. Chan, of the Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, MA, and coauthors examined the effect of aspirin on cancer among 135,965 participants registered in two large cohort studies of health care professionals in the US.

The Nurses' Health Study ran from 1980-2010, and the Health Professionals Follow-up Study ran from 1986-2012.

Weekly aspirin reduces CRC risk by 19%

The team looked at 20,414 cases of cancers among 88,084 women and 7,571 cancers among 47,881 men over a period of 32 years.

Among people who took 0.5-1.5 standard aspirin tablets a week, the prevalence of cancers overall was 3% lower, with a 15% reduced risk of GI tract cancers and a 19% lower risk of developing colorectal cancer.

Results suggest that the effectiveness of aspirin in preventing CRC is dose-dependent.

Regular use of aspirin did not correlate with a lower risk of breast, prostate, lung or other major cancers. What effect, if any, aspirin might have on other types of cancer risk remains unclear.

Findings suggest that aspirin may impact additional mechanisms that contribute to the formation of cancer in the GI tract. This could explain the stronger association of aspirin with a lower risk of gastrointestinal cancers.

Aspirin may prevent CRC whether people undergo screening or not. However, findings indicate that substantially more cases were prevented among people who did not undergo screening.

In the general population, the researchers suggest that regular aspirin use by people aged 50 years or over could prevent CRC in people who do not adhere to screening.

The team estimates that 17% of cases of CRC were prevented among people who did not undergo lower endoscopy and 8.5% of CRC cases among those who underwent the screening.

The authors recommend balancing the benefits of aspirin for CVD and cancer with potential harms, such as GI tract bleeding.

They conclude:

"Aspirin may be a potential low-cost alternative to endoscopic CRC [colorectal cancer] screening in resource-limited settings or a complement in settings in which such programs are already implemented, including the general US population, in whom screening adherence remains suboptimal."

In a linked comment, Dr. Ernest T. Hawk, of the University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, and coauthors highlight the study's findings regarding aspirin's potential impact for the general population, as well as the value that aspirin can add to the screening process.

Aspirin use, they say, could complement colorectal cancer screening and could be beneficial regardless of endoscopy status.

2019 Healthline Media UK Ltd. All rights reserved. MNT is the registered trade mark of Healthline Media. Any medical information published on this website is not intended as a substitute for informed medical advice and you should not take any action before consulting with a healthcare professional.